WINONA, Minn. – Josh Schmelzer held up a flexible orange nasal tube in front of a group of purple-scrubbed high-school students at Winona Health.

Schmelzer, an EMT with the Winona Area Ambulance Service, explained that the tube is used on unconscious patients to open an airway. He inserted it up the nose of a dummy as the students watched. While it's not exactly comfortable, it can help save a life, he said.

Meanwhile, EMT Lucas Neuburg showed another group of students the inside of the ambulance, hooking up a volunteer to a heart-rate monitor. Down the street, students toured the inside of a medical helicopter.

The activities were part of the annual Scrubs Camp, a health-careers event held at Winona Health, Winona State University and other venues each year. The camp has visited Winona Health for the past three years, as part of the weeklong experience of medical careers, from surgery to massage therapy. This year, 95 high-schoolers attended the event.

Cottage Grove senior Jessieka Knazze has wanted to be a doctor since she was 12. For her, Scrubs Camp offered a chance to see just how many ways that occupation can be defined.

"They expose you to so many different careers in medicine," Knazze said.

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Winona Area Ambulance Service EMT Lucas Newburg, bottom, demonstrates using a cardiac monitor with Scrubs Camp students on Thursday in an ambulance at Winona Health.

Knazze would like to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, and is already beginning her college career through postsecondary education at the University of Minnesota, but she said it makes sense to learn about other medical professions.

Neuburg, who is studying nursing at WSU, agreed.

"There's such a variety of interests in health care. It's more or less just a 'try it,' " he said. "Now's the time to be searching, checking things out."

Besides the ambulance and helicopter, activities that day included sessions in physical therapy, systems improvement, imaging and phlebotomy.